Hamster
by SugarSonic
Summary: White fur, black eyes, a cute little pink nose, pink paws and whiskers; the small creature that had jumped out resembled a mouse, but lacked the long pink tail. Was it…?


**Hamster**

**By SugarSonic**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, SEGA does.**

* * *

The metallic sound of keys clashing together could be heard and the door opened. Shadow the Hedgehog entered his apartment, a tired look on his face.

"No more missions for a while…" He murmured to himself, and sighed. He threw his keys into a ceramic bowl that sat on a small table next to him and closed the door. The last three days had been very stressful for him, as G.U.N. had assigned him a particularly difficult job. He was glad it was over and he could finally relax for some time.

Turned the light on, the hedgehog moved to the kitchen, looking for some fresh water to drink in the fridge. He stopped, however, as he noticed a white piece of paper attached to it.

_Dear Shadow,_

_Welcome back home from your mission. Left a present for you in your room._

_Love, _

_Rouge_

Shadow lifted an eyebrow. That girl could be surprising at times. He still thought it was nice of her to write that message.

Forgetting the water completely, he turned on his heels and headed to his room. He had to admit he was curious for once; he hardly received gifts from people. Maybe it was a good book to read; after all he had so much time to kill now.

Reached the door of his room, he opened it and turned the light switch on. He stopped immediately, hand still resting on the switch.

Sitting on one of his bedroom furniture was a small cage.

His widened ever so slightly, thinking it was some kind of joke, "What the…?"

Shadow moved closer to it and examined it carefully. It looked, indeed, a cage like the ones used to keep small animals inside. He frowned a bit; if he knew Rouge was going to give him something like that, he would have never left his second house keys to her.

He kept looking at it. There was a little square box with a small opening, a wheel, some kind of plastic tubes, a bowl with some – he guessed – food inside and one of those tiny bottles for animals filled with water. Other than that it was empty.

"Weird…" He said, leaning even closer to the bars to look better. Had Rouge given him an empty cage?

Just as he was done saying that, inside the little plastic box he spotted something…white.

It wasn't there before!

Shadow stared in awe as the white thing moved and jumped out of the box.

White fur, black eyes, a cute little pink nose, pink paws and whiskers; the small creature that had jumped out resembled a mouse, but lacked the long pink tail. Was it…?

"It's a hamster!" Shadow exclaimed. He had little knowledge of pets in general, but he could remember hearing about this species in particular.

The white hamster stared at him with his tiny black eyes and suddenly moved closer to the bars to sniff him.

Shadow, without thinking, moved his finger close to the bars as well as if he wanted to curiously touch the little ball of fur.

But curiosity kills the cat, and his hand was met with sharp teeth.

"Ow!" He retreated his hand immediately to look at it. The hamster had bitten through his glove but luckily no blood was coming out.

"You little!" Shadow said with slight anger in his voice. The rodent didn't seem to care as he continued sniffing through the bars, his whiskers moving up and down. He grew tired eventually, and swiftly moved to the bowl of food to sniff there as well.

The black hedgehog watched, offended. Why the hamster had bitten him anyway? He was no food!

Tiredness suddenly washed over him. He had slept so little during his mission and the bed was practically screaming for him to go and lay down.

The hamster seemed tired as well, for it stopped sniffing the food and ran back inside its plastic box to sleep.

"Oh well, if that's it then I'm going to sleep as well." And with that said, Shadow turned off the lights and crashed in his bed, barely covering himself with the blankets as he fell asleep in no time.

* * *

His sleep didn't last long. A sudden noise had him jolt up in his bed.

"What?" He mumbled tiredly, his eyes closed halfway. The noise had stopped.

Shadow felt a bit suspicious, but he went back to sleep.

The noise resumed.

"Ugh!" He was up again and the noise didn't cease this time. It was coming from the cage.

Shadow turned on the lamp on his bedside table and saw it.

The hamster was running at a very fast pace on its wheel. It stopped when the light was turned on, as if knowing to have been caught.

"Just what do you think you're doing, huh?" He addressed the little creature; which of course gave him no attention and resumed running, making a lot of noise in the process.

"Stop it, for Chaos' sake! I want to sleep!"

He was ignored once again as the hamster kept running, only stopping briefly to scratch its head with its paws.

"That's it, I'm taking you to the other room, you little pest!" And with that he got up, took the cage, and carefully moved it to the living room. Going back to his room, Shadow closed the door and went back to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, after he had woken up, he went to check on the hamster but he didn't find it, as it had retired in its box to sleep.

"Maybe it's a nocturnal pet?" Shadow asked himself. Why did he care anyway? That little pest had completely ruined his well-deserved sleep. Even if he had been awake for a short time, he still felt tired.

His phone rang suddenly.

"Hello?" He answered, rubbing the sleep from his left eye.

"_Hello there, sleeping beauty!"_

He recognized the voice.

"Rouge?"

"_I'm at the café right now, I hope you didn't have breakfast yet."_

"No, I didn't." He said tiredly and couldn't help a yawn.

"_Hey! Don't fall asleep on me! I'm waiting for you here, okay? See you later, handsome!"_

The phone beeped and Shadow hung up. He cast one last glance at the small cage and left for the café.

* * *

"So, how are you and your new friend going along?" Rouge the Bat asked, sipping the coffee from her cup.

"Quite nicely." Shadow replied sarcastically, "It woke me up in the middle of the night."

"I can see that." She smirked, and put the cup back on the table.

He also drank a bit of his milk with…whatever they put inside it, "Why did you give that thing to me anyway?"

"You're always so lonely, I thought it could be nice to have some company in that boring apartment of yours, don't you think?" She batted her eyelashes at him, "Just give it a try, okay? I'm sure you two will become great friends! Plus, it's so cute, isn't it?" She squealed the last part and giggled.

"I guess…" Shadow huffed and looked down at his milk.

"What's wrong, sugar?" She asked, holding her face in her hands as she leaned over.

"Seriously, Rouge. I'm not a hamster babysitter. I don't know how to take care of a pet. Plus, I hope you recall that I go on missions regularly, how I'm going to take care of it while I'm away?"

"Well, you can always take it to Amy, she loves pets! You know, it was also her idea to buy that cute little thing for you." She said smiling.

"Awesome." Shadow just wanted to drop his face in his cup of milk.

* * *

After his breakfast with Rouge, the black hedgehog went for his usual morning commissions and came back home in time for lunch. He prepared himself something quick to eat, then crashed on the couch to relax for a while.

"Bah, don't feel like doing anything today…" He said through the pillows, wanting desperately some sleep.

A crunching sound was suddenly heard. Shadow looked up and saw the tiny hamster gnawing on its food.

"Oh, you're awake." He got up and went close to the cage. He studied the little rodent; it was curled up possessively around its piece of food, eating rapidly.

He had to admit it was kind of cute.

As soon as it was finished, the hamster looked around and noticed the hedgehog standing there. It quickly ran up to him close to the bars again like last time.

Shadow, who didn't want to get fooled twice, moved his hand very slowly and carefully to the bars and let the hamster sniff his fingers. It didn't bite him this time, much to his relief. The hamster stared at him and climbed the bars with his paws to get closer to him.

That was when Shadow had an idea.

He rushed to the kitchen and took one of his favorite cookies from a bag. He broke it into pieces and went back to the other room.

"Are you hungry?" He let one of the cookie pieces pass through the bars and the hamster grabbed it swiftly, devouring it with glee.

Shadow smirked, "I see you like my cookies."

The hamster finished eating and looked back at him with hungry eyes, sniffing at the bars for more food.

Feeling brave, Shadow decided to open the cage and let his hand sweep completely inside, cookie ready in his grasp.

What he didn't expect was the hamster running immediately over his hand to get the cookie bits. Shadow panicked and retreated his hand with the hamster sitting on it and gnawing the cookie.

"Hey! What are you doing?" He was stuck, and didn't know how to get it off.

Things went worse when the hamster finished eating the cookie and, looking for more, started climbing up the hedgehog's arm.

"Wait!" Shadow yelped, trying to catch it with his other hand. Before he could grab it, however, the hamster fell from his arm. He gasped, but managed to catch it before it would hit the ground. Too bad the hamster took advantage of the situation to jump off Shadow's hand, which was very close to the floor, to run away in a random direction.

"No! Get back here!" He took off after the hamster; the little guy was fast!

They ended up in the kitchen and the little rodent decided to hide under the counter. Great, now how was he going to catch it?

Shadow crouched down and looked under the furniture; the hamster was looking at him from a corner and had no intention on going out.

He got up and reflected on the situation.

"Maybe this will work…" He took another cookie from inside the bag, crumbled it to pieces, and put them on the floor in front of the counter. He waited.

After a while, an hesitant hamster came out of its hiding, sniffed the delicious cookie and started gnawing it yet again.

"Gotcha!" Shadow had swiftly caught the little thing in his hands, which didn't mind at all as long as it had the cookie.

He went back to the living room and opened the cage to deposit the little animal in there.

"Phew…" He sighed. Everything was over thankfully. What if it got stuck under some furniture and he couldn't get it out? He didn't even want to think about it.

* * *

After the little accident, Shadow had opened his laptop and was curiously looking for hamster info on the web. That was, when the doorbell rang. He got up and went to open the door…finding none other than Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Hey Shads!" He grinned, "Rouge told me you're back from the mission so I thought to come and—OH!" He stopped abruptly, looking over Shadow's shoulder.

The black hedgehog had barely the time to turn his head that Sonic was already in front of his pet's cage.

"So it's true! You have a pet!" He laughed.

Shadow pouted slightly, "So?"

"Ah, nothing. Where is it? Can I see it?" Sonic said excitedly.

"It should be in its den." He said, walking over to the cage as well.

In fact, hearing the voices, the white hamster came out of its hiding, looking at the two hedgehogs curiously.

"Aw, MAN! It's so cute!" Sonic said happily, and let his finger get sniffed, "Hello, little guy!"

He then turned to Shadow, "What's its name?"

The black hedgehog was a bit speechless, "Uh, I…I haven't named it yet."

"WHAT? But Shadow! That's the first thing you do when you get a pet! Is it male or female?"

"Err, I don't know?"

"What about a general name then?" Sonic suggested, then his eyes gleamed, "Shadow Junior?" He snickered.

"No way." Shadow said flatly.

"Okay, okay! What about…Hammy?"

The other seemed to think about it for a moment, "You know, that's not bad."

Sonic grinned happily, "It is Hammy then!" He turned back to the cage, but 'Hammy' was gone.

"Aw, Hammy? Where are you?" He pouted.

"I think he went to sleep, he's nocturnal, you know?" Shadow said, looking quite confident. After all, he had spent all afternoon reading information about hamsters on various websites.

Sonic whistled, "You seem to know a lot, Shads!" He then tapped his foot on the floor, "Well, since Hammy went to sleep, you up for a race?"

Shadow seemed hesitant. He was dead tired and the only thing he wanted was sleep. But he was always up for a race with the blue hedgehog.

"Hmph, fine! But first…" He went in the kitchen to get another cookie, and left it in the cage for Hammy.

"Alright, let's go!" Sonic said, racing out of the apartment, with Shadow after him.

* * *

Later that evening, the black hedgehog came back to his apartment, carrying a bag in his hands that contained hamster food, hamster litter and other stuff. After the race with Sonic he had gone to a pet shop to ask some other information and in result ended up buying some things.

He closed the door and went to crouch down next to Hammy's cage.

"You there, little guy? I bought some stuff for you." He put down the plastic bag with its contents on the floor and leaned forward, looking for his hamster.

"Hammy?" He called his pet's name for the first time that day. Hammy however didn't come out.

Shadow frowned, when he suddenly noticed something.

The cage was open.

He started panicking. He hadn't left it open, had he?

Oh crap.

Shadow bolted up, looking around for a little white ball of fur, "Hammy? Hammy?"

He paced up and down his house in exasperation. He couldn't believe he was so stupid to leave the cage open. Mentally slapping himself, he kept looking everywhere, under the couch, behind the furniture. He had even checked the kitchen and moved the fridge to see if it went behind it. Nothing.

Shadow dropped on his bed, feeling completely exhausted and desperate. Where the heck was that hamster? Was he even alive? His mind froze; he didn't want to think about it. He was so tired…he would have continued his searches the next day, now he needed to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Shadow came out of his room, looking completely and utterly like a zombie. He had had a rough night, thinking about his poor hamster and barely sleeping at all.

He walked in the living room to go to the kitchen and glanced at the cage forgotten on the floor. He had left it open hoping the little guy would have come back on its own, but he could clearly see there was nothing inside.

Once in the kitchen, he grabbed his whole bag of cookies and started munching sadly on one. Darn it, he missed the little fur ball.

But it was gone…and it was his fault.

Getting back to the living room, he plopped himself down on the couch, but dropped the bag of cookies by doing so, its contents scattering everywhere on the floor.

He huffed annoyed, "That was great, Shadow."

He sighed again, and looked down.

And that's when he saw it.

Little Hammy was on the floor, gnawing happily on the crumbs of the dropped cookies, with his cute little whiskers going up and down.

Shadow's mouth opened but no sound came out for a while.

"Hammy!" He suddenly exclaimed, getting on the floor and crawling on his knees to reach the little rodent without scaring it. He took the hamster in his hands slowly, "Were you here the entire time?" The hedgehog asked, as if the other could actually reply. Instead it just kept chewing.

Shadow smiled and petted little Hammy on the head, scratching behind its small ears, "Welcome back, buddy."

_FIN_

* * *

**AN: Okay, before someone kills me for such a silly story…this fic is dedicated to my four little hamsters that I owned so far in my life. I want to say that I DO NOT SUPPORT CAGED ANIMALS. Sadly, captive animals are so used to being domestic that they tend to be very weak and die easily if freed. So yeah…I do not support it but sometimes is necessary. Also, as usual, I'm NOT A NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER. I know my English sounds weird and I apologize. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
